Labor candidate Deb O'Brien's announcement that they intend to ban Coles and Woolworths from making lottery ticket sales (Inverell Times, Tuesday, January 27) is best described as the right move, but in Labor's case it is for all the wrong reasons.
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Far from adopting a principled stance in support of small business or a measure to combat problem gambling, this proposal has come from the same Labor party that flooded NSW with poker machines and whose new leader Luke Foley just offered the bigwigs of the racing industry a $100 million tax break.
When Labor was last in government, they sold off the NSW Lotteries to private operator Tatts. Greens warned then that the five-year moratorium on supermarket ticket sales was insufficient to protect newsagents into the future.
Our warning has proved correct and Labor has only now woken up and tried to make amends at the last minute.
With a history like that, it's a bit of a cynical ploy for Labor now to try to claim a halo in support of small business or reducing problem gambling. By contrast, Greens can demonstrate a principled and consistent stance against supermarket Lotto sales, as our policies have always sought to reduce the harm caused by problem gambling.
While lottery tickets remain one of the least harmful forms of gambling and are for most people just a bit of problem-free fun, it is still wisest to limit their sales to existing outlets such as newsagents.
By backing Greens at the NSW election, voters can still protect their local newsagent against supermarket Lotto without endorsing Labor's love affair with the pokies and their sell-off of NSW Lotteries.
Mercurius Goldstein
Northern Tablelands Greens candidate
